Court must decide as 'claimant over-eggs pudding'

Published on Tuesday 18 March 2008 22:03

SHE may have claimed her daughter would be forced to fly "B class" because of her divorce settlement, but Heather Mills showed that she was unwilling to see her own quality of life suffer.

In setting out the income she would need, the judge, Mr Justice Bennett, accused her of having "flagrantly over-egged the pudding".

Her claims included the need for seven fully-staffed properties with full-time housekeepers at an annual cost of 645,000, holiday expenditure of 499,000 a year, including private and helicopter flights costing 185,000, a further 125,000 annually for her clothes and 30,000 for equestrian activities.

The judge pointed out, however, that she no longer rode.

Despite being a teetotaller, Ms Mills also claimed 39,000 a year for wine, 43,000 for a driver, 20,000 for a carer and professional fees of 190,000.

She had also claimed annual sums of 542,000 for security, 627,000 for charitable donations, 73,000 for the cost of business staff and 39,000 for helicopter hospital flights.

However, the judge assessed her needs at an annual figure of 600,000, stating: "In the absence of any sensible proposal by the wife as to her income needs I must do the best I can on the material I have.

"If the wife feels aggrieved about what I propose she only has herself to blame.

"If, as she has done, a litigant flagrantly over-eggs the pudding and thus deprives the court of any sensible assistance, then he or she is likely to find that the court takes a robust view and drastically prunes the proposed budget."

In setting out his revised figures, he said of her estimated charitable expenditure: "I accept that the wife is very committed to charities and their causes, but the degree of such proposed expenditure is, I am sorry to have to say, ridiculous."